Hello everyone,
Hoping for some insight into a wee mystery I have with this person and one of her parents.
Rose Bina Hawkins was born 6th Jan 1888 and was baptised on 25th Jan 1888, St. Saviours, Battersea. Her parents were listed as William Hawkins (Labourer) and Mary Jane. She married in 1951 although she was together with her future husband as early as 1916 as that was when they had their first child. I also have her in 1911 as a servant to a grocer in South Hayling, Hampshire - the use of the unusual middle name of Bina shows that it is the right person as well as her giving her birth place on the census record as Battersea, London. What I can't find is any record of her, or her parents, in 1891 or 1901 nor of her father prior to his wedding.
The only appropriate marriage between a William Hawkins and a Mary Jane in the time scale and area needed is one on 4th Jan 1880, at the parish church in St. George the Martyr, Southwark. Both parties are listed as living in High Street, Borough. From this I can trace Mary Jane's (her birth would have been 1857, Deptford) family quite easily in earlier census records with the knowledge of her father's name, William Henry Godfrey. However, William's father is listed as Job Hawkins (Labourer), Deceased and no age is given on the marriage record for the groom to help tie him down.
I cannot find William living with a father named Job anywhere in the area prior to this marriage so am a bit stumped. I did wonder if they came from Hampshire - therefore explaining why Rose Bina turned up there in 1911 if they had returned to his stomping ground after their marriage - but I can't find them there either. In theory, it's possible that he died or they went their separate ways after the marriage but he must have been around some time in 1887 to have gotten his wife pregnant with Rose Bina!
There is a 1881 census record for a William 23, (1858, Vauxhall, Surrey, Plasterer) and Mary Hawkins 25 (1956 with only a 'ditto' under the Surrey part of the address and the district left blank) 108 Ingrave St, Battersea which could be them....and could not be them as well. Family history tells us that Rose Bina was an only child so we don't have the option of using siblings to find the family between their marriage and Rose Bina appearing in 1911 in Hampshire.
There is a William Hawkins listed in 1871 at Camberwell noted as stepson to a Thomas G Pocock and wife Rebecca A so thinking that we know his father, Job, was dead, I investigated her marriages but found her previous husband to be a Thomas Barret Hawkins s/o Marshall Hawkins - no sniff of the name Job Hawkins.
There is another William Hawkins listed in 1871 at Hackney with his age given as 14 (1857) with a birth place only as London, Middlesex and he is listed with his widowed mother, Maria Hawkins (1830, Exeter, Devon). Tracing this family back gives us a 1861 census with Maria living with husband William 36 (1825, Hoxton) and assorted children, one of which is a William Edward 6, (1855, born Haggerston). Haggerston is part of Hoxton so no connection to Vauxhall at all and the census was taken Stoke Newington so the area and the father's name doesn't match.
I'm doing wonderfully well at finding out who William Hawkins isn't, but not so well finding out who he was.
I can't find much info on anyone called Job Hawkins either, with no birth or death date or idea of where they lived, my brick wall seems very firm at the moment.
Can anyone help....?
Regards
ScallyW.
